2012 will be the year of reckoning for the European Project. It is extremely unlikely that the Euro can be held together in its current form, and that that will be the most positive scenario. The worst case scenario will be that the markets overwhelm the whole thing leading to wholesale natonalisation of the banks. Either way Eurosceptic opinions and anti EU voting will continue to grow, not just in Britain bit across the whole European Union.

The EU project is a failure.

For UKIP 2011 saw us clearly establish ourselves as the 4th party in domestic politics. Highlights for us included Stuart Wheeler becoming our Treasurer, lending us great credibility. Lord Hesketh joining us later in the year was a coup, having the former Chief Whip in the Lords during the Maastricht debate come over shows us quite how far the argument over Europe is moving in our direction. Then there was the second place for Jane Collins in the Barnsley by-election that ruffled feathers across the whole political class. And the consistent week by week improvement of our poll ratings in council by-election after by-election the length and breadth of the country, and in December one national opinion poll had us overtaking the Lib/Dems.It is true that the end of the year saw a dip in our polling as Cameron gained a bounce. While I congratulate David Cameron, what is in all honesty could have done differently? The slow realisation will however dawn, that not a single power has been brought back from Brussels and that amidst the new mood of retribution in Brussels, British businesses are under greater threat than they were before the 'veto'.

There is now an overwhelming desire of the British people to have a referendum on this issue, a referendum that Cameron, Clegg and Milliband steadfastly refuse to grant.

In 2012 we will continue our progress in local government elections and focus heavily ont hej London Assembly polls in May.

London needs growth, London needs jobs, London needs the deregulation of employment legislation, and London needs control of the mass legal and illegal immigration. UKIP will provide that voice and win seats at the London Elections.

Given my views I sadly cannot promise you a prosperous New Year, but one in which the political class further lose their grip on both reality and the country.

But many cities across the United States prefer to put their own spin on the now traditional event. From pinecones to pineapples, these regions lower their own oversized symbols as the last seconds of the old year tick away.

Pinecone Drop, Flagstaff, Arizona

Arizona is more likely to be associated with cactus than pinecones, but Flagstaff, in the northern part of the state, has the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the continental United States. The 5ft-by-7ft gold and silver aluminium pinecone has dropped from the 112-year-old Weatherford Hotel since 1999.

Great Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop, Eastport, Maine

The only place in America where the New Year is rung in twice in one night, the easternmost city in the United States drops a 4ft-wide maple leaf at 11 pm to celebrate the New Year in neighbouring New Brunswick, Canada, and drops an 8ft-long sardine at midnight to ring in their own New Year, commemorating Eastport’s longstanding sardine canning industry.

Moon Pie Drop, Mobile, Alabama

Though moon pies are made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mobile has had a love affair with the marshmallow-filled treats since they were first thrown in Mardi Gras celebrations in 1956. The 12ft-tall moon pie replica has only been dropping on New Year’s Eve since 2008, but the event already has its very own commemorative song.

Walleye Drop, Lake Clinton, Ohio

A 20ft, 600-pound walleye fish has made an appearance in this Lake Erie town since 1996. Residents hold an entire outdoor celebration (where the temperatures can often be well below freezing) with walleye chowder, sandwiches and even walleye-flavoured popcorn.

Pineapple Drop, Honolulu, Hawaii

The last time zone in the US to leave the old year behind, Hawaii sends it off in style by lowering a 200-pound papier-mâché pineapple from the 10-storey Kahala Resort in Oahu. The event can be seen from the beach or the hotel.

HOWEVER IT'S MARKED IN YOUR HOMETOWN... I WISH YOU THE HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS!

(THE ARMY THOUGHT THEY WERE KURDISH TERRORISTS CROSSING INTO TURKEY, BUT THEY WERE MERELY TURKISH SMUGGLERS).

ERDOGAN MUST THINK THAT EXPRESSING "REGRET" IS ENOUGH.

YET.... YET ERDOGAN HAS REPEATEDLY DEMANDED THAT BIBI NETANYAHU SAY MORE THAN JUST EXPRESS HIS "REGRETS" FOR THE DEATHS OF THE FLOTILLA PROVOCATEURS AND INSTIGATORS ABOARD THE MAVI-MARMARA - SOMETHING BIBI HAS CLEARLY DONE.

THE DEATHS OF THE FLOTILLA INSTIGATORS WAS REGRETTABLE, BUT PROVOKED AND IN SELF-DEFENSE FOR A LAWFUL BLOCKADE. THE IDF MERELY WANTED TO ENFORCE THE LEGAL BLOCKADE; THEY DID NOT INTEND ON KILLING ANYONE. SO BIBI EXPRESSED REGRETS.

THE MURDER OF THE TURKISH SMUGGLERS WAS JUST A TOTAL FU*KING SCREW UP.

THE DOUBLE STANDARD COULDN'T BE CLEARER.

ERDOGAN SHOULD ACCEPT BIBI'S REGRETS AND MOVE ON AND SEEK TO REPAIR TURKISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS...

OR JUST ADMIT TO THE WORLD THAT HE IS NOTHING MORE THAN A TOTAL EFFIN HYPOCRITE AND AN ANTISEMITIC, ANTIZIONIST, JIHADIST PIECE OF CRAP.

UPDATE: INSTAPUNDIT AGREES - AND EVIDENTLY POSTED THIS 2 HOURS AFTER I EMAILED HIM ABOUT IT AND POSTED ON IT LAST NIGHT , (AND EVEN LINKED TO HOFT - THOUGH MEMEORANDUM MISSED IT TOO); (MY BAD FOR MISSING IT; TOO BUSY TODAY...):

CAIR pursues this strategy regularly. Shame on WordPress for giving in. Note to bloggers: In a free-speech controversy, you can’t count on WordPress. Act accordingly. Meanwhile, an item on CAIR’s terrorist ties. More here. And its membership is minuscule. This is who you listened to, WordPress.

ALL PEOPLE WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES ANTI-JIHAD AND ANTI-SHARIA SHOULD BOYCOTT ALL WORDPRESS PRODUCTS.

Here's an article about Tuesday's protest against pseudo-Hasidic segregationists, co-organized by Rabbi Dov Lipman. And in this article, a special note on just where this whole problem could originate:

[Eli] Yishai told a Shas faction meeting that such behavior goes against the values of the Torah, and the law must be enforced “with all its severity.”

The Shas leader related a Talmudic story in which the sage, Rabbi Yohanan Ben-Zakkai, opposed an extremist group called Sikrikim, after whom the modern-day haredi group is named, saying that the phenomenon in which a minority is more extreme than leading rabbis is at least 2,000 years old.

What really makes me mad here is that these pseudo-Hasidic extremists are potentially taking away attention from the more serious crises with Islamofascism, and with something that much more vicious around, that's exactly why we cannot afford to face more problems like these in our own midst.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Cities around the nation, grappling with what is expected to be a fifth consecutive year of declining revenues and having exhausted the predictable budget trims, are increasingly considering something that would once have been untouchable: the lights.

I think the OWS crowd is on the vampire/zombie pole - AND THEY IDENTIFY WITH ZOMBIES AND VAMPIRES - and the Tea Party on the Christ pole of this polarity - AND THEY IDENTIFY WITH JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES.

CASE IN POINT: The last picture on the right might look like an OWS crowd, but it's actually some bizarre zombie-parade.

It matters not whether you believe in Christ or vampires or zombies for you to see which way our Pop culture has been steered by the atheistic postmodern leftists and chic degenerati who run Hollywood and the legacy media.

The deep long-lasting effects of this onslaught of nihilism on the younger generations cannot be good - unless you're a postmodernist seeking to annihilate Judeo-Christian Civilization.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that an anti-Muslim Internet hate site that contained a number of threats of violence targeting mosques, including the comment “I want [Muslim] blood on my hands,” has been taken down by its hosting company.

CAIR said visitors to “Bare Naked Islam,” hosted by WordPress.com, now see the message: “barenakedislam.wordpress.com is no longer available. This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.”

[NOTE: "Bare Naked Islam" was one of the major promoters of the campaign to pressure Lowe's to drops its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim."]

Last month, CAIR called on the FBI to investigate the threats of violence targeting mosques posted on the blog and urged WordPress.com to remove it for violating the hosting company’s terms of service (TOS), which prohibit blogs that “contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities.” Articles and comments posted on “Bare Naked Islam” urged attacks on and desecration of American and European mosques.

Of course, CAIR has never acted to have any Jihadi site (calling for war on Infidels and Jews) taken down, have they?

If they wanted to take a dump on Vaclav Havel’s grave, it would have been cheaper just to fly to Prague and do it.

The occasion here is the 20th anniversary of the break-up of the Evil Empire, but I like to think of it as a parting gift to Kim Jong-il. Where are you when we need you most, ruthless-Stalinist-counterweights-to-U.S.-power? Over to you, Mikhail Gorbachev:

This event led to euphoria and a “winner’s complex” among the American political elite. The United States could not resist the temptation to announce its “victory” in the cold war. The “sole remaining superpower” staked a claim to monopoly leadership in world affairs. That, and the equating of the breakup of the Soviet Union with the end of the cold war, which in reality had ended two years before, has had far-reaching consequences. Therein are the roots of many mistakes that have brought the world to its current troubled state…

Within such a matrix, the United Nations and its Security Council become expendable or at best an impediment, while international law is viewed as a burdensome legacy of the past. That was the attitude taken by the United States and its supporters in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s and in Iraq in 2003. American pundits started talking about the United States as more than just a superpower, calling it a “hyperpower” capable of creating “a new kind of empire.”…

In short, the world without the Soviet Union has not become safer, more just or more stable. Instead of a new world order—that is, enough global governance to prevent international affairs from becoming dangerously unpredictable—we have had global turmoil, a world drifting in uncharted waters. The global economic crisis that broke out in 2008 made that abundantly clear.

THIS COMES A WEEK AFTER COMMUNISM WAS ENDORSED BY WHOOPI GOLDBERG ON ONE OF TELEVISION'S MOST WATCHED MORNING SHOWS:

WHAT'S ESPECIALLY AWFUL ABOUT WHAT THE NATION, GORBACHEV AND WHOOPI ARE SAYING IS THAT IT COMES AS THE WORLD IS SUFFERING ANOTHER GREAT CALAMITY THAT IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF SOCIALISM.

THAT'S RIGHT:

WHAT "The global economic crisis that broke out in 2008..." REALLY MAKES CLEAR IS THAT SOCIALIST PROGRAMS FAIL TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS AND THEY BANKRUPT THEIR ECONOMIES.

AFTER ALL, GREECE AND IRELAND AND SPAIN AND ITALY ARE NOT ON THE BRINK OF FAILURE BECAUSE OF BUSH TAX CUTS AND UNFUNDED WARS AND RUNAWAY SPENDING ON THE MILITARY!

WHAT IS BANKRUPTING EUROPE AND THE USA ARE THE SOCIAL PROGRAMS - THE SOCIALIST PROGRAMS.

GORBY IS AS WRONG NOW AS HE EVER WAS.

AN DITTO THE NATION AND WHOOPI.

SOCIALISM SUCKS. AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE IT'S IMPLEMENTED POORLY.

IT SUCKS BECAUSE AT ITS CORE IT'S ANTI-LIBERTARIAN AND COLLECTIVIST, AND ALL STATES WHICH DIMINISH LIBERTY AND THE INDIVIDUAL DIMINISH PROSPERITY... BECAUSE PROSPERITY IS A BY-PRODUCT OF LIBERTY.

SIGH.

IF THE NATION - WHICH I GREW UP READING - WAS NOW LIMITED TO PUBLISHING THINGS ITS STAFF ARE RIGHT ABOUT, THEN IT WOULD PUBLISH BLANK PAGES.

You need a photo ID to get on an airplane or an Amtrak train; to open a bank account, withdraw money from it, or cash a check; to pick up movie and concert tickets; to go into a federal building; to buy alcohol and to apply for food stamps. Most Americans don’t think it’s a hardship to ask voters to produce one. A Rasmussen poll in June indicated 75 percent of respondents support photo ID requirements…

Republicans “want to literally drag us back to Jim Crow laws,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla, chair of the Democratic National Committee.

The NAACP has asked the United Nations to intervene to block state voter ID laws. It may have an ulterior motive for opposing ballot security measures. An NAACP official was convicted on 10 counts of absentee voter fraud in Tunica County, Miss., in July…

This year there have been investigations, indictments or convictions for vote fraud in California, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina and Maryland. In all but one case, the alleged fraudsters were Democrats…

At least 55 employees or associates of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now have been convicted of registration fraud in 11 states, says Matthew Vadum of the Capital Research Center, who’s written a book about ACORN. Of 1.3 million new registrations ACORN turned in in 2008, election officials rejected 400,000.

WHY ARE DEMOCRATS SO FIERCELY FIGHTING AGAINST VOTER ID LAWS?

SIMPLE: WITHOUT VOTER FRAUD THE DEMOCRATS CANNOT WIN, AND THEY KNOW IT.

DUBAI: Being gay in the Middle East is taboo. Crackdowns in Arab countries against homosexuals is common and swift, with many countries employing the death penalty against convicted homosexuals.

Now, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay Kenyan men are being trafficked into the Gulf as sex slaves for the wealthy.

The report alleges that gay and bisexual men are lured from university campuses – particularly from Kenyatta University – with promises of high-paying jobs and then transported to labor as sex workers for men in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

According to the magazine, due to Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate, the men are easily fooled into this trap.

The publication interviewed one Kenyan victim who was promised a job in Qatar but ended up suffering sexual abuse.

Qatar specifically, has no laws against human trafficking, which has made cracking down on the practice nearly impossible.

... many observers incessantly contradict themselves on whether they want oil to be inexpensive, or whether they want higher oil prices to spur technological innovations ...

... oil imports at $100/barrel today are not much higher of a percentage of GDP than in 1998, when oil was just $20/barrel.

In fact, the US produces much more economic output per barrel of oil compared to 1998.

Of even more importance is the amazingly consistent per capita consumption of oil since 1982, which has remained at exactly 4.6 barrels/person despite a tripling real GDP per capita

This immediately deflates the claim that the looming economic growth of China and India will greatly increase oil consumption, since the massive growth from 1982 to 2011 did not manage to do this.

... technologies that are advancing to reduce oil demand by varying degrees, many of which have been written about separately here at The Futurist :

Natural Gas : Technologies that aid the discovery of natural gas have advanced at great speed, and supplies have skyrocketed to a level that exceeds anything humanity could consume in the next few decades. The US alone has enough natural gas to more than offset all oil consumption, and the price of natural gas is currently on par with $50 oil.

Cellulose Ethanol and Algae Oil : Corn ethanol was never going to be suitable in cost or scale, but the infrastructure established by the corn ethanol industry makes the transition to more sophisticated forms of ethanol production easier. But fuels from switchgrass and algae are much more cost-effective, and will be ramping up in 2012. Solazyme is an algae oil company that went public recently, and already has a market capitalization of $1.5 Billion.

Telepresence : Telepresence, while expensive today, will drop in price under the Impact of Computing and displace a substantial portion of business air travel, as described in detail here. By 2015, geographically dispersed colleagues will seem to be closer to each other, despite meeting in person less often than they did in 2008.

There are also technologies that increase oil supply, such as supercomputing-assisted oil discovery and new drilling techniques.

Mr. Obama ... did not schmooze with Washington politicians. No one from the New Hampshire Congressional delegation traveled with Mr. Obama on the plane, a perk that presidents often offer to lawmakers to foster good will.

Mr. Obama, in general, does not go out of his way to play the glad-handing, ego-stroking presidential role. While he does sometimes offer a ride on Air Force One to a senator or member of Congress, more often than not, he keeps Congress and official Washington at arm’s length, spending his down time with a small — and shrinking — inner circle of aides and old friends.

Maybe he doesn't feel he has to play the game. Maybe he believes he's got the election locked up already.

The hypothesis was that the number of incidences of domestic violence would increase when people have time off and when they consume more alcohol.

That’s not the case in Oslo. According to the domestic violence coordinator and assistant police chief Stein Erik Olsen the ‘Norwegian Christmas violence theory’ is simply a myth, on par with the myth that more burglaries are committed during holidays.

About 90,000 people have been displaced in clashes between militant Islamists and the security forces in Nigeria's Damaturu city, an official has said.
The Boko Haram group and troops were involved in heavy gun battles in the north-eastern city last week.
The militants also planted bombs in Damaturu and outside a church near the capital, Abuja, on Christmas Day.

THEY WERE NOT FLEEING ZIONISTS OF RETHUGLICANS OR XENOPHOBIC SHERIFFS.

THIS ALL INSTIGATED BY GLOBAL JIHADISM.

THIS IS ALL PART OF THE REAL WW1 WHICH MOHAMED STARTED AFTER HIS GENOCIDAL CAMPAIGN IN ARABIA WAS OVER AND HIS MARTIAL IDEOLOGY SPREAD VIA TERROR EAST THROUGH NORTH AFRICA AND INTO EUROPE VIA SPAIN, AND WEST TO PERSIA AND INDIA AND SE ASIA.

EITHER THE WEST WINS OR JIHAD WINS.

AND THE FINAL BATTLE IS COMING - WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR WANT IT TO, OR NOT.

... the Aztec priest class executed annually at least 50,000 inhabitans of the land, men, women and children, in human sacrifices to their gods. In 1487, just in a single 4 days long ceremony for the dedication of a new temple in Tenochtitlan, some 80,000 captives were killed in human sacrifice. The same practices, which in most cases included the cannibalism of the victims limbs, were common also in earlier Mesoamerican cultures, with widespread Olmec, Toltec and Maya human sacrificing rituals.

THESE SAVAGES WERE SAVED BY THE CONQUISTADORS NOT SLAUGHTERED BY THEM.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Rescue firefighters responded to a Southwest Airlines flight in distress after two tires blew on the runway Tuesday evening, leaving the jet and its passengers grounded.

The left main tires blew at about 6:15 p.m. as Southwest flight 2287 was departing for Seattle, Sacramento International Airport spokeswoman Laurie Slothower said.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Katie McDonald said the pilot quickly aborted the takeoff and emergency crews were called in to hose down the 737 as a precautionary measure. They later set up a portable stairway to let the 130 passengers off the plane.

Two tires blew on one jet. How does that happen?

I'm surprised they haven't released a statement saying terrorism is not involved.

The poverty rate for all children in married-couple families is 8.2 percent. By contrast, the poverty rate for all children in single-parent families is four times higher at 35.2 percent.[3]

The number of single-parent families has grown considerably since the onset of the War on Poverty. In 1960, less than 12 percent of children lived in single-parent families. By 2000, that figure had more than doubled, rising to 27.6 percent.

... when poor single mothers are married to single men of similar age, race, and education, their marriage lifts the family out of poverty in about 80 percent of cases. Overall, child poverty would be nearly a third lower today if the traditional two-parent family had not deteriorated between 1960 and 2000.

AND WE WOULD HAVE BEEN EVEN MORE BETTER OFF HAD ROMNEY - WHO IS MORE CONSERVATIVE THAN MCCAIN - WON THE NOMINATION AND BEAT OBAMA IN 2008.

THAT'S BECAUSE IN 2008, ROMNEY RAN TO THE RIGHT OF MCCAIN; REMEMBER, ROMNEY WON THE ENDORSEMENT OF EVERY MAJOR CONSERVATIVE THAT YEAR, INCLUDING RUSH AND SEAN AND LEVIN.

IT'S A FACT THAT ROMNEY HAS STAYED ON THE RIGHT EVER SINCE.

AND IT'S A FACT THAT ROMNEY WAS THE FIRST MAJOR POLITICIAN TO ENDORSE RUBIO AND HALEY.

THERE IS NO DOUBT ROMNEY WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN OBAMA IN 2013.

THERE SHOULD BE NO DOUBT THAT - SHOULD HE WIN THE NOMINATION - ROMNEY WON'T BE OUTSPENT BY OBAMA THE WAY MCCAIN WAS, AND THAT HE WILL GIVE OBAMA THE TOUGHEST FIGHT; ALL THE POLLS SHOW THIS TO BE THE CASE.

It's hard to believe that we have to take Ron Paul seriously as a candidate for the office of President of the United States. Most Americans would find his foreign policy views abhorrent.

Eric Dondero, who worked the campaign trail with Ron Paul for 12 years offers a few observations, here. On Israel:

[Ron Paul] is however, most certainly Anti-Israel, and Anti-Israeli in general. He wishes the Israeli state did not exist at all. He expressed this to me numerous times in our private conversations. His view is that Israel is more trouble than it is worth, specifically to the America taxpayer. He sides with the Palestinians, and supports their calls for the abolishment of the Jewish state, and the return of Israel, all of it, to the Arabs.

On WWII:

Ron Paul is most assuredly an isolationist. He denies this charge vociferously. But I can tell you straight out, I had countless arguments/discussions with him over his personal views. For example, he strenuously does not believe the United States had any business getting involved in fighting Hitler in WWII. He expressed to me countless times, that “saving the Jews,” was absolutely none of our business. When pressed, he often times brings up conspiracy theories like FDR knew about the attacks of Pearl Harbor weeks before hand, or that WWII was just “blowback,” for Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy errors, and such.

I would challenge him, like for example, what about the instances of German U-boats attacking U.S. ships, or even landing on the coast of North Carolina or Long Island, NY. He’d finally concede that that and only that was reason enough to counter-attack against the Nazis, not any humanitarian causes like preventing the Holocaust.

On our current losing war against the Jihad:

Ron Paul was opposed to the War in Afghanistan, and to any military reaction to the attacks of 9/11.

He did not want to vote for the resolution. He immediately stated to us staffers, me in particular, that Bush/Cheney were going to use the attacks as a precursor for “invading” Iraq. He engaged in conspiracy theories including perhaps the attacks were coordinated with the CIA, and that the Bush administration might have known about the attacks ahead of time. He expressed no sympathies whatsoever for those who died on 9/11, and pretty much forbade us staffers from engaging in any sort of memorial expressions, or openly asserting pro-military statements in support of the Bush administration.

On the eve of the vote, Ron Paul was still telling us staffers that he was planning to vote “No,” on the resolution, and to be prepared for a seriously negative reaction in the District. Jackie Gloor and I, along with quiet nods of agreement from the other staffers in the District, declared our intentions to Tom Lizardo, our Chief of Staff, and to each other, that if Ron voted No, we would immediately resign.

Ron was “under the spell” of left-anarchist and Lew Rockwell associate Joe Becker at the time, who was our legislative director. Norm Singleton, another Lew Rockwell fanatic agreed with Joe. All other staffers were against Ron, Joe and Norm on this, including Lizardo. At the very last minute Ron switched his stance and voted “Yay,” much to the great relief of Jackie and I. He never explained why, but I strongly suspected that he realized it would have been political suicide; that staunchly conservative Victoria would revolt, and the Republicans there would ensure that he would not receive the nomination for the seat in 2002. Also, as much as I like to think that it was my yelling and screaming at Ron, that I would publicly resign if he voted “No,” I suspect it had a lot more to do with Jackie’s threat, for she WAS Victoria. And if Jackie bolted, all of the Victoria conservatives would immediately turn on Ron, and it wouldn’t be pretty.

His conclusion:

If Ron Paul should be slammed for anything, it’s not some silly remarks he’s made in the past in his Newsletters. It’s over his simply outrageously horrendous views on foreign policy, Israel, and national security for the United States. His near No vote on Afghanistan. That is the big scandal. And that is what should be given 100 times more attention from the liberal media, than this Newsletter deal.

When the American voters take a look under the hood, they are not going to go for Ron Paul.

Knesset members from all sides of the political spectrum called for the government to officially recognize the Armenian genocide, marking the first time the issue was discussed in an open Knesset meeting.

The Knesset Education Committee meeting was initiated after MK Arye Eldad (National Union) proposed a bill to mark the Armenian genocide annually, which was then turned into a motion for the agenda after Eldad realized the coalition would not allow the legislation to pass. The meeting also addressed a similar motion put forward by MK Zehava Gal-On (Meretz), making Armenian genocide one of the few topics agreed upon by the Knesset factions farthest to the political left and right.

The discussion took place a week after France’s lower house of parliament moved to criminalize Armenian-genocide denial, leading to a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Ankara.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said that those who fight Holocaust denial must not ignore the tragedies of other nations, and it is a moral imperative that Israel remember the Armenian genocide.

Rivlin said that he made a motion to the agenda on the matter in 1989, but until Monday, it was not discussed openly in the Knesset, due to political and diplomatic reasons. He added that the issue was moved from the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where it was discussed behind closed doors, to the Education Committee, with the press present, so that “morals and values” could be discussed. [...]

Eldad accused the government of hypocrisy, saying that at first, the matter wasn’t publicly addressed because relations with Turkey were strong, and now the same policy stands for the opposite reason.

Coalition chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said that he is embarrassed that the Knesset has yet to fulfill its “basic responsibility” in recognizing the Armenian genocide.

He said “a wall has been broken” in that the Education Committee discussion was taking place openly, but that progress still needs to be made.

Elkin also mentioned that in 1939, Hitler cited the fact that Europe ignored the Armenian genocide to justify his actions.

At the same time, Foreign Ministry representatives in the meeting said that it would be irresponsible to make any official declarations on the matter.

The ministry never denied the Armenian genocide, the representatives explained, but the issue has become political, and Israel prefers not to be involved, especially because Turkey and Armenia have been holding an open dialog on the facts and opinions surrounding it.

In addition, only 21 countries have officially recognized the Armenian genocide, according to the Foreign Ministry, and it would be unfair to declare all those who haven’t immoral.

Nobody's accuding anyone of immorality here, unless they try to use political relations as their defense. This is not a matter of politics, but of the importance of history, and the foreign ministry should not be trying to oppose this.

In a followup to this earlier topic, A Mother in Israel presented these 2 pictures of women/girls who are part of a cult in Beit Shemesh that actually takes up the same approach as Muslim women with creepy looking veils that look as though there's no eyeholes. Scary, right? Maybe I'm righter than I think about Islam having a terrible influence on some alleged practicers of Judaism. More on that here, and some more here too on how some rabbis are making an effort to stop it.
In more news on the current crisis, the so-called Hasidics rioted after signs calling for segregation were taken down:

Police forces accompanied by Beit Shemesh municipal inspectors removed public signs calling for segregation between men and women in the city on Sunday. This prompted dozens of haredim to crowd around the officers. They hurled stones and cursed the officers. Some haredim called police "Nazis." There were no reports of injury.

Earlier on Sunday, Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul held a meeting on the matter in his chambers. His order to remove the signs was carried out at 5 pm when the streets were meant to be empty of people due to the lighting of Hanukkah candles. Nevertheless, several haredim rioted and hurled stones in protest.

Some of the signs were put up again later in the day by local haredim.

Abutbul strongly condemned "the radical fringes of the haredi sector who tarnish the reputation of all Beit Shemesh residents."

Chief rabbis against 'kosher' buses: Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger on Sunday responded harshly to the ultra-Orthodox demand to operate "kosher" bus lines in haredi neighborhoods, saying that the haredi public had not right to impose its opinion on the rest of the population.

"We can't be the world's landlords. This isn't the haredi public's country," the chief rabbi said in an interview to Kol Barama Radio. "We have no authority to impose our opinion on others. This is a public place."

Israel ordered its first batch of the GBU-28 in 2005 and reportedly received them a year later.

In 2007 it asked the Pentagon for another batch of bombs but the delivery was delayed due to concern in Washington that Israel planned to use the bunker buster bomb to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, some of which are located in fortified bunkers.

In September, Newsweek reported that the Obama administration had recently decided to authorize the delivery of 55 GBU-28 bombs as part of an aid package aimed at improving ties with Jerusalem.

The US government alleged in its lawsuit against the company that the installation of defective fuses could lead to the premature detonation of the bomb and cause accidental misfires.

IT WOULD SEEM THAT OBAMA AND HOLDER KNEW THAT THESE BOMBS WERE DEFECTIVE BECAUSE THEY HAD A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE MANUFACTURER.

AND IT WOULD SEEM THAT ISRAEL JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS.

THIS MEANS THAT OBAMA AND HOLDER DELIBERATELY DID NOT TELL ISRAEL.

EITHER THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO SABOTAGE THE IAF AND ISRAEL'S ABILITY TO EFFECTIVELY ATTACK IRAN'S NUKE PROGRAM.

I ARGUE IT IS DELIBERATE SABOTAGE.

MY PROOF?

SIMPLE: THE ACTUAL DEMONSTRABLE EFFECT OF ALL OF OBAMA'S POLICIES, FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS, HAS BENEFITED GLOBAL JIHAD.

THIS PATTERN IS TOO CONSISTENT FOR THIS ADDITIONAL EXAMPLE TO BE CONSIDERED AN ACCIDENT.

OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY ACTIONS AND INACTIONS - WHICH HAVE ALL BENEFITED IRAN AND THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, AND HARMED OUR ALLIES - MEAN OBAMA IS A TRAITOR AND SHOULD BE ARRESTED, INDICTED, AND TRIED (ALONG WITH HOLDER).

THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

THE BEST WE CAN DO IS THROW HIM OUT OF OFFICE.

JEWS WHO VOTE FOR THE EFFECTIVELY PRO-MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OBAMA ARE TRAITORS TO ISRAEL AND THEIR PEOPLE,

Meant to create jobs and cut reliance on foreign oil, Obama’s green-technology program was infused with politics at every level, The Washington Post found in an analysis of thousands of memos, company records and internal ­e-mails.

Political considerations were raised repeatedly by company investors, Energy Department bureaucrats and White House officials.

The records, some previously unreported, show that when warned that financial disaster might lie ahead, the administration remained steadfast in its support for Solyndra.

The documents reviewed by The Post, which began examining the clean-technology program a year ago, provide a detailed look inside the day-to-day workings of the upper levels of the Obama administration. They also give an unprecedented glimpse into high-level maneuvering by politically connected clean-technology investors.

They show that as Solyndra tottered, officials discussed the political fallout from its troubles, the “optics” in Washington and the impact that the company’s failure could have on the president’s prospects for a second term. Rarely, if ever, was there discussion of the impact that Solyndra’s collapse would have on laid-off workers or on the development of clean-energy technology.

“What’s so troubling is that politics seems to be the dominant factor,” said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “They’re not talking about what the taxpayers are losing; they’re not talking about the failure of the technology, whether we bet on the wrong horse. What they are talking about is ‘How are we going to manage this politically?’ ”

As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country/region/city they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness:

From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. They will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature it on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. (United States).

At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islam is not to convert the world but to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

When Muslims reach 10% of the population, they will increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions (Paris –car-burnings). Any non-Muslim action that offends Islam will result in uprisings and threats (Amsterdam - Mohammed cartoons).

Mohammed Shtayyeh, member of the Fatah Central Committee and one of the Palestinian Authority negotiators with Israel, was quoted Sunday as saying that the Palestinians may cancel the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel.

THEY KNEW ISRAEL CANNOT NEGOTIATE WITH HAMAS - THAT'S WHY THEY MADE THE DEAL.

THE KARINE-A PROVED THE PEACE PROCESS IS A CHARADE. THE INTIFADAS PROVED THIS. THE CONTINUED USE OF GENOCIDALLY HATEFUL ANTI-JEWISH BOOKS IN THEIR SCHOOLS PROVE IT; GENOCIDAL ARTICLES IN THEIR PRESS AND ON THEIR TV.S, AND SERMONS IN THEIR MOSQUES PROVE THIS. THEIR REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE FOR THE LAST 4 YEARS PROVES THIS.

IF THEY CANCEL THE AGREEMENTS THEN ISRAEL SHOULD ANNEX THE SO-CALLED TERRITORIES AND EXPEL THE ARABS THERE TO JORDAN.

With five days left in 2011, ticket sales in North America are running about $500 million behind last year — despite higher prices — prompting a round of soul searching by studios trying to determine what went wrong and how best to proceed.

... What has gone wrong? Plenty, say studio distribution executives, who point to competition for leisure dollars, particularly among financially pressed young people (the movie industry’s most coveted demographic); too many family movies; and the continued erosion of star power.

One more thing: “You have to go back and look at the content,” said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Brothers. “Good movies always rise to the occasion. Bad ones, not so much.”